I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask anyway...

I know I have a rear differential pinion seal leak. I ordered the parts and am picking them up in Flagstaff today. But just this morning, I noticed oil all over my drivers side rear tire. Not sprayed so much, like the little splatters of oil I'm seeing everywhere on the rear, being thrown by the driveshaft. The total bottom half of the tire had oil running down it, like it had been dripping down.

But not just one place, right at the center bottom like I've seen before with an axle seal leak. The whole bottom half of the tire is covered. Do you think just the pinion seal could throw oil like that, or am I losing an axle seal now, too?

As usual...I'm on the road, jacking this thing up is seriously sketchy, and very little room to crawl under it.

I'll do it...but getting an appointment at a shop likely means sticking around some town for over a week since most shops aren't scheduling in the same week. Some are even scheduling a couple weeks out.

Not sure how far I want to drive on it so I don't know if calling a town a week away and scheduling something is safe?

I'm thinking of doing the pinion seal, then just watching closely...but figured I'd check in here first to see what people have experienced.

 

I drove my '81 4x4 for about a year with a bad rear wheel seal/bearing. I just had to add oil frequently. When the rear wheel seal starts leaking, I am not sure but it may indicate the bearing is going? It is a sealed bearing, as well as there being a separate 'axle' or 'dust' seal. Regardless, I could feel play in my rear wheel after about a year. So I finally replaced the bearings, seals and retainers. I had to have a shop pull the old bearings, and press the new ones in. I am sure someone with more knowledge could be more specific, but your leak sounds similar to my axle seal leak. Good luck!

 

Sounds like an axle seal to me. I used it as an excuse to finally buy a 20 ton press.

But yeah, you can drive it as long as you keep oil in it. It doesn't take very much oil to make a scary looking mess. I don't think mine even oiled my brake shoes like I thought it would.

 

Yep, Seems like an axle seal. If you think that the bearings are still ok (or at least good enough for now because they aren't so easy to replace), the rear axle seal is a piece of cake to replace. I bet I could do it on the side of the road in 30 minutes or less per side. All you need to do is remove the wheel (technically, you don't even have to do that but it's easier to do so) , disconnect the parking brake cable at the brake drum, disconnect the brake line at the drum, unbolt the 4 bolts holding the bearing cup on the axle housing, pull out the axle shaft with the drum attached (don't lose the o-ring), yank the old seal, bang in the new seal and re-assemble. It can literally be done with with a floor jack, tire iron, 10mm brake flare wrench (or just a regular 10mm wrench), 14mm ratchet, 14mm wrench, a seal puller (or big ass screw driver) and a seal driver (or a piece of wood and a hammer). Don't forget to bleed the brakes and top off the gear oil when you are done.

 

Bad axle seal or bad wheel cylinder.

 

Ok, thanks.

I brought it to a shop to get the tires rotated (honestly, you wouldn't believe how much of a pain it is to jack this thing up!), and had them look. Since I was last under there, the drivers side axle seal really started putting out oil.

This isn't like how my front axle seals on 4x4 would leak, with just a little run going down the tire after parking for the night...

The guy showed me the brake drum, and it was drenched with gear oil.

The place I brought it to seemed to have their stuff together, and the only thing holding them back from getting to it right away was getting the new seal. But they could get it in tomorrow.

So I'm just going to have them do the pinion seal and the one axle seal.

Crappy thing about it is that I had all this done, back when I had income before I left on this trip. I tried to get all this kind of crap done before I was on the road. So I don't know if my mechanic didn't do a good job, there was a defective seal out of the box, or if I've got a little burr or something making it leak so soon.

I had all four wheel bearings done, plus all axle seals just about 10,000 miles ago.

Oh well! Looks like I get to see if there are any breweries or good places for a beer in Flagstaff tonight. One there is for sure in Flagstaff, is a very large wildfire just outside of town, getting pushed by sustained 30mph winds.

 

I hope to be like you someday! I could do the pinion seal pretty quick and felt ok about that, and I've all but done an axle seal before when I swapped rear diffs on my old truck. But still being a fairly newbie to mechanics, I still get intimidated too easily by stuff. I'm getting over it, but having not grown up even doing oil changes, I've got a bit of mental block I have to get over every time something new comes up that I've never worked on before.

I mean if I can do my head gasket, I can do a damn axle seal, right??

But when it went beyond just the pinion seal, and into disconnecting brake lines and pulling the axle shaft, I decided it was worth it to just pay to have it done.

If I were home and this were my recreational vehicle...whole different story.